EDITORIAL: At 21, Chidinma Ojukwu’s Life Is Over; Where Are The Feminists?

This feminism, has to teach the easily pliable young women, that one does not eject himself from the quicksand of inequality by implicitly plunging deeper into that sand.

On Saturday, June 19, 2021, a tragic culmination of a missing person’s case percolated across various news media, with viral reports indicating that erstwhile CEO of Super TV, Mr. Michael Usifo Ataga, had been gruesomely murdered in an Airbnb apartment somewhere in Lekki, Lagos State.

After failed attempts by family and friends to locate Ataga, who was residing in the high brow Banana Island of Lagos, his lifeless body, with multiple stab wounds, showed up in a flat in Lekki Phase 1 on the morning of Friday, June 18, 2021.

In the wake of his death, his murderer proceeded to rake Usifo’s Guarantee Trust Bank account, making multiple withdrawals until a bar was placed on the account to prevent further withdrawals.

While it had been mooted that Ataga’s death was a function of an extra-marital affair, no one could have seen yesterday’s shocking revelation coming.

On Thursday, June 24, 2021, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, paraded 21-year-old Chidinma Ojukwu, a 300L student of University of Lagos, as a prime suspect in the murder of Ataga.

Chidinma, who claims to be a Mass Communication student of the named institution, while being paraded before a myriad of newsmen, confessed to committing the crime, but not before deflecting the blame to the deceased, whom she claimed was trying to force himself on her after bouts of drinking and smoking.

One would not be overstating or sensationalizing to opine that the scenario surrounding Ataga’s death, to say the least, remains an enigma. Of course, the culprit has given her own account of what transpired, but then, without the dead to defend himself, it would be fool-hardily credulous to take the word of a cold-blooded murderer without leaving room for skepticism and speculation.

What easily discredits Chidinma’s claims of self-defense is that not only did she fail to go to the authorities to report the unfortunate incident, she also went ahead to fleece the victim’s bank account, hence producing the narrative that the murder was premeditatedly geared towards gaining unrestrained access to Ataga’s money.

Again, during her confession, Chidinma had, perhaps unwittingly, disclosed a vital detail regarding her relationship with the victim, a detail she probably would not have spewed had she invoked her right to silence without the presence of her attorney.

She said: “He came to me and I was like I am not happy with what he did. I was like, ‘You don’t help me, you don’t assist me with anything, you are just playing with me around’. He was like, ‘Take my ATM and withdraw what you want.’

What this immediately implies is that the relationship, from the outset, was premised on a pecuniary interest which never materialized, a fact which pushed the culprit to adopt a rather ruthless means to achieve her goal.

There is also the possibility that this enigma could run deeper than the logical extrapolations one can deduce from available facts. This is in view of a few unanswered questions regarding Ataga’s acquaintance with his would-be murderer.

During her confession, Chidinma had alleged that she was introduced to the victim via a mutual friend. This unnamed mutual friend, whom the police is yet to reel into their investigation, could yet provide ample insight into the wholistic circumstances that led to Ataga’s death.

In a scenario which reeked shades of the Iniubong Umoren story, where the serial killer, Uduak Akpan, held a blank and remorseless countenance while recounting his horrific deed, one couldn’t help but notice the same level of remorselessness on Chidinma’s face while confessing to the crime, a fact that has led many to believe that such level of calm and equanimity in the face of potentially damning consequences couldn’t possibly come from someone who acted alone.

Ataga’s murder, alongside its attendant consequences on all sides, not only leaves a grieving family with the worst possible memory of a loving father and husband, it also speaks of an abrupt “waste of youth” sacrificed on the altar of the savageous societal convention which the vast majority of young women have embraced without fear or compunction. In the quest to hop on the merry bandwagon, a young woman in her prime, whose classmates describe as “level headed” has crossed a Rubicon of no return.

In Nigeria today, when an individual is caught in the eye of public opprobrium for a vice such as Chidinma’s, moral rectitude suddenly rents the air, and social media becomes an arena for venting out imprecations and expletives, condemning in totality, the horrendous manner of the vice. But what has been sadly absent has been the communal effort to prevent that vice from springing forth in the first place. If anything, ours is a society which sets up the average, young, impressionable individual to embrace the superficial idiosyncrasies that is promoted by popular culture and its attendant sub-cultures. It is a system which creates, feeds and nurtures a monster, and thereafter turns to question the audacity of that monster.

Much of 21st century Nigerian society, as one may argue for all societies of the world, has been themed by the unyielding fight for gender equality, the fight to knock the male gentry off its perch and entrench equal rights and opportunities for both genders. There would be no gainsaying in asserting that this fight has achieved very little success, particularly due to the fact that it has been a misdirected fight. Of course, those who benefit from the system cannot be expected to change it. Therefore, men will always be men and will continue to do the things men do.

This feminism, however, could take a giant leap towards leveling that perennial dichotomy, not by taking the fight directly to the men folk, but by educating the fledgling and impressionable young woman like Chidinma that she had the world under her feet, and that she did not need to become enmeshed in a “loveless” affair in order to suck out the full marrow of life. This feminism, has to teach the teeming flock of misguided young women, that to level up with the gender held to be enjoying preferential privileges in society, that one needs to develop the character of that gender. This feminism, has to teach the easily pliable young women, that one does not eject himself from the quicksand of inequality by implicitly plunging deeper into that sand. This feminism, has to teach that attacking the patriarchy and backhandedly looking to benefit from the same skewed system is tantamount to making a deal with the devil.

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Chidinma Ojukwu is just one life wasted, one life amid countless lives which have taken similar tragic turns, and, as horrible as it sounds, the next one is already within touching distance of this senseless tragedy. The time-honoured, self-righteous practice of hurling vituperations at individuals found wanting for breaching acceptable societal norms, to say the least, is counter-productive. The solution lies in creating an environment where that vice cannot thrive; unfortunately, the paradox of our society is that we have all but designed a system where these execrable mannerisms flourish unabated.

Ronny Ikpoto

Edidiong-Ronny Ikpoto holds a First Class degree in Media Studies. He shares a healthy enthusiasm for journalism, social & literary criticism, and creative writing.